iCloud Keep files on icloud but not on mac

[ScratchyMoose]

Hi. I've had a search in the forum but I can't find anything recent on this - apologies if I've missed a previous post.

So, I've got my music on an external HD attached to my Mac. I'd like to back the music files up to iCloud, but not have them on my internal HD because they're already stored locally on the external HD.

I'm really confused ... can anyone tell me an easy way of doing this?

The problem that I run into is that if I drag a folder onto iCloud Drive in the Finder, it uploads that folder to iCloud, but it will only do so while also copying that folder onto my internal Mac HD. That's a problem because that's not what I want, and it's also a problem because I can't right click the folder, and choose 'Remove Download' because that option is not there

 

[chrfr]

Hi. I've had a search in the forum but I can't find anything recent on this - apologies if I've missed a previous post.

So, I've got my music on an external HD attached to my Mac. I'd like to back the music files up to iCloud, but not have them on my internal HD because they're already stored locally on the external HD.

iCloud doesn't support this functionality. You can use the "optimize storage" option but the Mac will download your files seemingly randomly.

 

[ScratchyMoose]

Thanks ... it's so hard to accept that that's the case, as I've got 1.6Tb of iCloud storage sitting there doing nothing, but I've been getting grumpier and grumpier this afternoon trying to fix a way to use it as backup / storage. It really sucks

And you're sure there's no way to have some Mac files on iCloud but not on my internal HD? ... 😩

 

[pup]

I’m pretty sure that iCloud keeps your music library backed up regardless where it’s located. Assuming you have a music or iTunes Match subscription of course.

But I wouldn’t really think of anything on iCloud as a true backup, even stuff on iCloud Drive. While it does act like that in many ways, it’s really a service to keep things synced between devices. Arguably semantics though for most users.

 

[ScratchyMoose]

I’m pretty sure that iCloud keeps your music library backed up regardless where it’s located.

That's only if you're paying for Apple Music or if you buy iTunes Match, but iTunes Match costs £22 per year ... I'm already paying £7 ppm for iCloud. It's all so crap 🤬

 

[NoBoMac]

Sorry, no options anywhere to exclude items from syncing. iCloud has always, and continues to be, primarily a syncing service ("connected experience" per Apple) vs archive/backup for Mac.

 

[satchmo]

I have trouble trying to save a Pages document to my local HD. It keeps telling me my iCloud account is full...even though I'm not saving to it.

Frankly, iCloud upgrade notifications are out of control. The tactics feels very much like Microsoft of old.

 

[pup]

That's only if you're paying for Apple Music or if you buy iTunes Match, but iTunes Match costs £22 per year ... I'm already paying £7 ppm for iCloud. It's all so crap 🤬

Gotcha. An old school solution might be to create a symbolic link to your music in your documents folder. In fact, here's a third party app that looks like it uses that trick to accomplish what you want - https://www.sebthedev.com/macdropany.html

I don't know anything about that software other than it exists.

edit - reading further, it looks like with iCloud, that software doesn't do what you want.

 

[aintnobody]

Hi. I've had a search in the forum but I can't find anything recent on this - apologies if I've missed a previous post.

So, I've got my music on an external HD attached to my Mac. I'd like to back the music files up to iCloud, but not have them on my internal HD because they're already stored locally on the external HD.

I'm really confused ... can anyone tell me an easy way of doing this?

The problem that I run into is that if I drag a folder onto iCloud Drive in the Finder, it uploads that folder to iCloud, but it will only do so while also copying that folder onto my internal Mac HD. That's a problem because that's not what I want, and it's also a problem because I can't right click the folder, and choose 'Remove Download' because that option is not there

hi, I have the same problem. I have tons of old movie-files and put them on a folder in iCloud Drive. My idea was that everybody in my family can access these movies without taking up space on their own devices. After uploading the movies my Mac immediately startet downloading the files. That is not what I had in mind. BUT I found maybe a solution. If you hold CTRL and click on a single file in iCloud Drive you can select (i guess in english it is called...) "remove download" and a little cloud-icon appears.

If iCloud keeps it that way at least we have our files in the Cloud and not stored locally!

Are there services out there where you can open files "in" the Cloud without downloading them first?

 

[Ubele]

That is an annoying thing about iCloud Drive. I have Apple One Premier, which allows 2 TB in the Cloud. I have an iMac with a 2 TB Fusion Drive and have had up to 1.2 TB of content on it. I’m planning on replacing it with a MBP with a 1 TB SSD and moving rarely used files to an external drive. I‘d love to keep those files in the Cloud for backup purposes, in addition to a local backup drive, but iCloud Drive doesn’t let you do that. I’ll probably need to get a Dropbox subscription.

 

[stenoid]

I was just going to ask a similar question, and I stumbled onto this thread. I have a friend who has a ton of photos, he wants to store them on iCloud only, and not on his Mac. I think he pays for the 2 TB service. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but is there any way to do this?? Thank you.

 

[chrfr]

I was just going to ask a similar question, and I stumbled onto this thread. I have a friend who has a ton of photos, he wants to store them on iCloud only, and not on his Mac. I think he pays for the 2 TB service. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but is there any way to do this?? Thank you.

The answer has not changed. It’s still no.

 

[Wando64]

I was just going to ask a similar question, and I stumbled onto this thread. I have a friend who has a ton of photos, he wants to store them on iCloud only, and not on his Mac. I think he pays for the 2 TB service. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but is there any way to do this?? Thank you.

The photos library can be stored on an external disk and synched from there.
I know because I am doing it and it is documented and supported by Apple.

Obviously the external disk must be connected to the Mac.

 

[one1]

Why do people say you can’t do this? I’ve been doing this for years. I have 2tb and I made a folder on my icloud and shoved anything in there I want. It doesn’t sync in any way to my iMac, iPad, iPhone, or any other I-device. It’s just “there” And I can access it through my icloud on any device. Just make a folder on iCloud Drive.

 

[chrfr]

Why do people say you can’t do this? I’ve been doing this for years. I have 2tb and I made a folder on my icloud and shoved anything in there I want. It doesn’t sync in any way to my iMac, iPad, iPhone, or any other I-device. It’s just “there” And I can access it through my icloud on any device. Just make a folder on iCloud Drive.

Do you not have iCloud Drive enabled on those devices? Any folder I make anywhere in iCloud syncs automatically to every other device I have where iCloud Drive is enabled.